Cape railway squatters to be relocated

View the 2 000 Khayelitsha families living in shacks alongside a railway line to be relocated to a serviced site near Mfuleni by March, says the city’s housing portfolio head, Dan Plato…

Most of the shacks are built on sandy and steep slopes, and have no water or toilets. Many line the railway tracks.

Plato said water and toilet services at the relocation site were almost complete.

InternAfrica would like to point out that Mfuleni has many shacks of it’s own built on sandy steep slopes…

Metrorail said the required distance between a house and a railway line had to be at least 20 metres. Some shacks in the area are 5m from the tracks.

However, community members in the past resisted the city’s court interdicts and relocation plans for the illegal occupiers.

“City officials have held talks with the concerned residents and convinced them to relocate. We never experienced any problems. They obliged and were happy to be relocated,” said Plato…

Resident Nolutho Mazantsana, whose one-roomed shack faces the railway line, said: “This sounds good for us all here, our conditions of living are pathetic. Our children use the railway line as a playground. We feel forced to guard them carefully or take them along wherever we go.

“It would be better if the city can relocate us to a site with toilets and water, at least.”

Another resident, Mthiwekhaya Mlanjeni, said: “Although I never heard of the relocation plan, I don’t object to it for obvious reasons. But the concern is whether the city will be moving us from bad to worse.”